03 2500HD 4wd Shift Lever rattles...bad

[jhill]

I purchased an 03 GMC SLT 2500 hd with a manual shift lever in lieu of the common electronic push button. The option gave me a better piece of mind upon purchase since the lever has been around since 4wd was invented. At 3000 miles the lever began rattling when there was strain on the engine, ie going up hills. My local dealer replaced the lever and said that the way it is designed some movement is common and it will probably loosen up and occur again. Sure enough, at 8000 miles the lever began rattling, this time worse than the first. The truck has been in to 2 local dealers and they refuse to do anything with the problem and simply write it off as a flawed design. I have spent hours on the phone with GM customer service and they claim there are no technical bulletins and there is nothing I can do. One rep. even told me (and I quote) "This is an annoyance you are just going to have to live with". Has anyone else had this problem?? is there an aftermarket replacement? Who can I contact higher up with GM to get some real response?

[mhsneon]

Same problem here, there was some other people with it also, if you search for it on this site or it could have been pickuptruck.com, someone posted pics of a fix with tie-wraps. I have not tried this yet, I still have my 4wd linkage taken off. I will agree that it is anoying. My clutch pedal was creaking really bad after like 2k miles on the truck and they finially got it fixed recently even after telling me over and over there was no entry in the computer for it so there was nothing they could do for it.